Transcript
Speaker: Hi, this is Liana Gonzalez with the University of Houston, and I have with me today Mike Ashford, who is the near peer that helps run the media shop at Workshop Houston. Today we're going to talk all about the media shop with him, and I will let him introduce himself and talk about the process of how he became a near peer at the media shop. Thanks, Mike. Tell us what's going on.
Speaker: All right. So as she said, my name is Mike Ashford. Uh, I've been near, I'm a near period of workshop use for the media shop. The way that this came about was I actually went through the program since I say middle school, all the way to high school. And then I went to college and now I'm back, given what was given back to me, so to speak. And I asked how you like initially.
Speaker: talking and found out about workshop Houston, like kind of how were you recruited? Because that's kind of one of the problems that's been identified in a case study. So clearly, they recruited you very effectively, you're still there. So, so back in middle school, what they used to do was actually come to your school around lunchtime, and then just tell people, hey, basically word of mouth, hey, we have a nonprofit organization. Hey, we have at school program where you can learn how to do
Speaker: Back when I was actually in the program, it was where we can learn how to do welding, metal fabrication, and then it was still the beach shop and style shop. But now it's a whole different process. This process, I guess we're trying to implement the same as well, but we just have to get on. Okay, so tell us exactly what the media shop is and kind of what y 'all do on a day -to -day basis with the students.
Speaker: Okay, well the media shop, here in the media shop we actually teach kids how to do motion graphics, graphic design, photography, videography, and special effects.
Speaker: So I say life in a day will be, I come here around, I get here at 11, but kids don't get here to around three. Once they get here at three, then we'll actually give them a little time for them to actually get implemented to the day, to the day. Then around five, we have what we call a circle time where we see how everybody's feeling. And once second time is over,
Speaker: we actually start shops. So once everybody is done circle time, come to our shop, then what I do is I actually start them out with learning graphic designing, which will be my first lesson. So basically I break down on different effects they can do with Photoshop. Then I actually let them go on to the computers and actually do the lesson. If they need my help, I'm there to help them. So do you have like a set curriculum for every six weeks or kind of, can you maybe describe how the,
Speaker: Um, like what the curriculum looks like. I don't, I'm not quite sure. Okay. Yeah. So we do have a sec curriculum. So the first six weeks, I actually teach them how to do graphic design. So basically it'll be a project will be for the first three weeks. Now I have them just practice, practice, practice. Then the second three weeks, they actually are able to work on their own. Then we have what we call the six weeks showcase.
Speaker: When we showcase whatever is going on in the shop, so say if it's the first six weeks or the first three weeks, they do their project with me, then the second three weeks, they do an individual project, then that is presented to the six -week showcase. Okay, got it. And so do they, you do like the first, and there's a bunch of different modules throughout the whole year. So is that correct? Like you have, you start with design, what comes next? Like kind of what follows. Okay.
Speaker: The first six weeks, graphic designer, second six weeks is a little bit of both photography and videography. So they actually get the camera and I say that first three weeks is split. It may be one or two days they're actually doing photography and the other two days they're actually doing videography. And they actually come in and learn a new program which will be either
Speaker: Lightroom or Premiere Pro to actually edit their video, edit their photos, and then actually present something else the following six weeks. I mean, for the end of six week showcase.
Speaker: Is it basically just two six -week programs that students take and then do they go to another shop or do they do another lesson here? What happens after they finish the two six -week sets?
Speaker: Okay. It all depends on the student. So I have, I have, like I said, first six weeks, photography, me first six weeks, Photoshop, second six weeks, videography says, uh, photography then the third six weeks. So it's basically like I said, four, six weeks and they each, I say it all depends on that student.
Speaker: If they feel like they only want to learn how to do Photoshop for the first six weeks, then they can go to a different shop to learn anything else. It's not like if you stuck in the media shop and stuck in the media shop. No, you can go to any other shop as long as you finish at least one six weeks correctly. Okay. Oh, that's really cool. So you kind of get people hopping all over.
Speaker: So I'm sure it's helpful though for some of these other creative shops, like the choreography, the dance shop, like how great is it to then be able to hop over, learn videography and editing. I'm sure those skills kind of complement each other very well. Yes, and that's the same as with the beat shop and the media shop. See, that's what I love about the media shop is the media shop correlates with each and every shop. It's not just
Speaker: It's just for the beach shop. It's just for the dance shop. It correlates with any other shop because, hey, everybody was into media. Everybody wanted to learn how to be the next TikTok star or Instagram. You know what I'm saying? Everybody would learn how to do media. Well, we were talking, too, with Base and O 'Shea about developing these creative skills that are very marketable in the workforce. And these are, I mean, incredibly
Speaker: marketable like you need to know how to use them how to like make good media like that kind of those type of skills are applicable in so many career paths beyond like even beyond just creative careers like yeah I mean I have to design flyers all the time like you gotta know how to do that anyway so that's really cool I see what you're saying that that is a really cool thing about the media shop I hadn't thought about it that way okay can you tell us maybe about some of the equipment and software that you guys use
Speaker: Okay, so right now we're using Adobe Suite, Creative Suite, which is basically anything from Photoshop all the way to Lightroom. So it's a whole lot of, this is what I love about Adobe. It's a whole lot of programs that you can use. So we're currently using Adobe Suite, and we also have 3Max, and we also have a green screen, a camera, and a camera.
Speaker: So that's everything that we work with. Plus, we also have a heat press, which is back to the first six weeks course in photography. I mean, not photography, Photoshop, a graphic designer. I actually teach the kids how to do a T -shirt design. So they actually create the design and we also have a heat press here where I can actually print them and show them how to actually print their own designs on the T -shirt. Yeah, T -shirt companies.
Speaker: are like crazy profitable. So it's good to like, no, start that. It's like, I'm always shocked how many T -shirt companies they are, how well they do. People love T -shirts. Okay, so can you tell me maybe what the biggest challenge the media shop faces like on a day to day basis? The biggest challenge to me really would be is several, but I say the number one biggest would be our computers.
Speaker: In my opinion, they're top of the line, Matt, but I think we should have a little bit more ramming.
Speaker: so they won't be running as slow because, for example, when we edit videos that add effects to that video, we don't want to be two or three hours in and all of a sudden our computer start getting slower and slower and now we can't finish editing our videos or vice versa. We're trying to actually get several t -shirt designs ready to be printed and our computer is basically just being slow.
Speaker: What have y 'all kind of done to address maybe the storage problem in the past? What I normally do is I make sure that whatever program that they're doing, if they edit a picture or whatever, I make sure they have on either, I have an external hard drive. So I make sure it's saved on that external hard drive rather than the hard drive on the computer. Okay. External hard drive.
Speaker: a solution. Okay, so I guess like, I mean, I've been in the shop, it's kind of in a weird spot. I mean, because it's almost separated from everybody. Is there anything that you would like change? Is that one is that good or bad? And is there anything else you would change maybe about the shop? Like maybe, I mean, I don't know where y 'all guys lay on the like engagement with students. If you like, you don't get as many because you're like in a separate building or what,
Speaker: I will say I'm 50 -50 with that. Of course, I want more students to be able to come here and I hate that I'm actually, like I said, I'm away from everybody. But that's also a good thing because
Speaker: it can have the students to actually focus. They won't have to worry about that distraction. And that's that's my number one thing is when you actually see this is what I love about when it comes to photography, videography, graphic design, or anything with media, you actually have to lock in to get everything because the small details.
Speaker: It can be you creating a T -shirt design. You might not see that might loop, but as a designer, you're like, oh snap, I need to make sure that this loop, I'm just going to say it's some fonts. I need to make sure this font is actually centered. It's not off -center, because I don't want to actually put that in production. People are like, oh, this is off -center. You want to actually be tedious and actually lock in on whatever you're doing in the media shop.
Speaker: Okay, so one of the other things in the case study that we've mentioned as a problem is the overall aesthetic and cool feeling of the shop. Can you maybe talk about the aesthetics of your shop and how you feel about it, what things you might think could contribute to the coolness factor?
Speaker: I don't know if that question makes sense. It does, it does. The overall aesthetics of my shop right now, that's how I look around. I really don't have nothing to put on. I don't have nothing to actually put on the walls, but if I was to have a printer, I'd be able to actually have the students, whatever design that they create, I'd be able to print that out
Speaker: and actually have it on the wall, so that way every time they come in and be like, oh, that's my design record. I designed that. Oh, I designed this one. I remember my friend designed this one as well. So that way, if I have any visitors in here or any potential people that would love to be in the media shop, I say, look at every picture or everything that you see posted on this wall is actually students that created this. So you can actually create something that happened on the wall.
Speaker: So how do you feature kind of your students work now? Right now, because I started doing social media. I have it where I guess I might have to take Thursdays or every Thursday, every other Thursday, I highlight what's going on in the media shop. So I actually have some of the students to actually post some of the pictures on social media so that way they'll know what's going on in the media shop.
Speaker: Okay, wait, so now I have a question about the social media. This is not exactly related to the beach shop, but so do you guys post every Thursday from specific, I'm sorry, not the beach shop, the media shop. Do y 'all get like each a day for each shop to post or is it free for all or do you run the social media? It's really free for all right now, but I'm gonna try to find a way to have it where, because in all honesty, I'm trying to have it where
Speaker: the kids in the media shop actually runs the social media for Workshop Houston. That makes sense that they learn the media, so they wouldn't mind posting media for the social media, if that makes any sense. Can I ask maybe why they're not doing it right now? I think it's maybe, I'm not gonna say we're not there yet. I say I'd rather for
Speaker: at least we're going into teaching these kids how to do the media. I say at least give them a whole year or two. So that way I know that they're willing to go out and actually take photos and come back at it. Yeah. No, you just, I understand. You can't just trust anybody with your social media. I mean, especially because it's, you know, your biggest channel to the public, um, making sure you have the right students that are trained friendly and are going to execute appropriately.
Speaker: Okay. Um, is there anything we haven't covered that maybe you want to talk about, about the media shop? What makes it special, cool, different, um, specific problems? Uh, like I said, basically the specific problems that we have would be, we definitely need the RAM for as the computers, uh, even extra two computers if possible. Then I'll save the camera.
Speaker: If we had an extra camera, that would be good because if I was to send two students out to get media for each and every shop, you have one person actually doing the photography work, and you have one person that's doing the actual videography, then that way we can come back and edit everything. Okay, this is a random question. I don't even know if this is gonna make it to the podcast.
Speaker: Does students ever get hired out for projects based off the work that somebody has seen? What's the... I guess... Do people get job opportunities, I guess is my question, out of y 'all shop directly? From the experience that they build up their portfolio, kind of like...
Speaker: How does that work? Okay. So this is the difference between, I'm just going to say Workshop Houston and WHOLE now and back when I was actually coming into Workshop Houston. So back in the day when I was actually at Workshop Houston, it wasn't where students can be able to work at the nonprofit organization, but now
Speaker: It's where we can actually look for people to hire within. We might see one student that we see, he comes in, he does the work, he put in the work, and now he's ready to be able to use his skills. So then that's when we can say, you know what, this guy been with us for, I was going to say two years. So now we think we should be able to hire him.
Speaker: because he'd been practicing his skills. So now he can actually come into the, I'm going to use a media shop for example, might be a kid or a senior come in for two years. It might be, he might be looking for a job. I'll say, I think this guy could be the next near period that can help me out in media shop. Okay. So basically right now the pipeline to jobs is there's an extraordinary student in your shop that y 'all have identified that's been working with you for at least two years. And then they, um,
Speaker: you hire them kind of almost like an apprenticeship to be a near peer. But you all have students that you know of that go on and get jobs outside of workshop Houston with these skills? Not with the media shop because like I said, the media shop is fairly new. Okay. So we don't have nobody else actually went out to see if they can get this job. Wait, how new is the media shop? When did y 'all get established? I say we're like a year in maybe.
Speaker: Oh, you're only a year in. Yeah. Oh, okay. I, I'm sorry. I, I somehow didn't know that. Okay. It may be, it might be three years in because when I came in, yes, we're, we're fairly still three years in and we haven't had no kids. Well, I guess based off these like three years, obviously you probably made a ton of changes. Was there anything that you, um,
Speaker: that's really different than what you initially thought when you first started or is there anything that's changed drastically in the three years based off feedback?
Speaker: uh nothing because it's like the media shop is at that point as what we said earlier how um since we're kind of off the off the trail for us the people that's coming into um Workshop Houston we haven't been getting too many kids coming into media shop so that is kind of what I was saying it's it's good that we're off of the Beatty Trail for Workshop Houston but then it's
Speaker: Good. You know what I'm saying? So it's like once we actually find people that's willing to come in here to meet yourself, willing to learn, and like I said, we basically just need more kids to come in to meet each other. Wait, so how many kids do y 'all get like a week in the meal shop? In the media shop, we normally get, let me see.
Speaker: I have about three students. You have three? Yes. What do you think would be like the number you'd like to see? Really, I would like to see, let me see.
Speaker: I like to see it's three kids as both. It's just for one day. So I say the most kids that have will be three kids on Wednesday. Okay. All of the days I don't have my kids. So I would like to see three kids, Monday, three kids, Tuesday, three kids, Wednesday, Thursday. Okay. Okay. So kind of one of the biggest problems that you guys really have is recruiting these students when it's like you don't have the
Speaker: They're kind of the big rough, like kind of, I'm assuming what happens is somebody goes to the style shop and they have a great experience, they make a cool dress, they go tell their friends, and then it's kind of word of mouth recruiting. So you guys don't quite have the word of mouth yet because you don't have that many students.
Speaker: Well, that's interesting. Okay. But that's not for the other shop. Right. It's just for my shop. For your shop. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. For the media shop in particular, because you're a newer program in a shop, you don't really have this word of mouth power. And the space too, I think the idea that you don't really get to see the work of the students in the space and what they've done, I think also
Speaker: You don't have a really effective method to get the word out about all the cool stuff that y 'all are doing. And then that's when I'm trying to change because, for example, how you having this podcast now.
Speaker: I'm actually going to have a podcast that has students, basically for workshop music. We have students in each and every shop that tells their story of workshop music. And I believe with that and I will YouTube and I will Instagram that I bring more kids in. Yeah. And also practicing these like skills, like an opportunity to say like, okay, I don't know how to use YouTube. Like I know that this is,
Speaker: like a potentially viable career path, like recording, editing, etc. And having an opportunity to practice is I think everything. Okay, that's really cool. So you're expanding programming to consider kind of these other like things to practice on like a YouTube channel and a podcast. Okay, cool. I mean, I love podcasts. So I'm pro podcast. But I don't know. I don't know what like a what are kids like that are in the shop now? Like what are they like? How do you
Speaker: So the kids that have now I say They like to They're pretty much Like enemy so it's like yes, I was not
Speaker: I thought it was a short video. No, okay. Like they're like Dragon Ball Zips and things like that. And the way that I get them, so this is what I love about Media Shop is with Media Shop, you have to, I'm not going to say, I'm going to say, you don't have to cater to your students on what their preference is because not
Speaker: you're gonna lose him. So for example, the kids that I actually have on Wednesday, they like anime drag ball Z and not Ruto. So I was like, okay, how can I get them to actually wanna learn how to do VFX? So I told them, guess what you will learn? You will learn how to actually do, I guess, I'm not for sure if you know, but you know how not Ruto normally do like his hands, do that.
Speaker: I don't know, but I guarantee people, or the students that listen to this will know. So go ahead and explain it with Naruto's hands. They do what? So when Naruto basically changes his hand, see, I'm trying not to butcher it myself. So basically, I'll go with Saakei. Saakei, his eye normally changes with something, I'm not sure. So please, whoever listened to this,
Speaker: It's no offense of this. But basically, so I'm just trying to show them effects that I know they're like to learn. You know what I'm saying? That's basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You want to make sure that you are thinking about them as you, like, think about how the media shop is going to grow. Okay. So I guess you'll only need a whole anime wing. Oh my God. Okay.
Speaker: All right. Um, I'm trying to think if there's anything else we covered, but I think I, I mean, I think I have a really good sense of the media shop. I think the big takeaways are you guys are a newer shop. Um, you probably, y 'all probably have their other smallest shop, correct? Uh, student wise. It's, it's me and the dance shop shop by the same size. And then, um, so student recruitment is something that you guys maybe don't quite have a, like,
Speaker: the advantage of word of mouth because you're into a program. And then basically, there's all these cool skills that you can learn. But I think the other thing too, is it's not like, like, it's so easy to, like the beach shop and the style shop, it's like, you're going to learn to sew, you're going to learn or you're going to learn to make music. And with you guys, like there's so many things you can do, like you're going to learn how to take pictures, you're going to learn how
Speaker: to make designs. So there's so many, the benefit of being in the media shop is like you get access to a bunch of different skills. But sometimes that can be hard to, to market. And then that's when I have it, like I said, that's when I have the six weeks. Yeah. So that way we can have, like I said, one person might say, okay, I just want to learn my Photoshop. So I'm like, okay, you learn Photoshop and just
Speaker: keep practicing Photoshop, Photoshop, Photoshop, Photoshop. You don't necessarily have to go to the next six weeks and learn photography or videography. I know it kind of is overwhelming. That's another thing that I love about media shop is like I said, you might have one person that come one six weeks and they go to beat shop. And they say, okay, Mr. Mike, I've been learning. I've been actually practicing my Photoshop. So now I want to come back and actually learn how to do photography and videography. Okay, come on, do the next six weeks.
Speaker: So it's like, it's like it's constantly, you can constantly learn a trade with the media and I believe beat shop and style shop. It is one trade that you can learn, but still with that practice, practice, practice, make perfect. Yeah.
Speaker: All right. Okay. Well, Mike, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. I feel like I have a really good understanding of the media shots. The coolest stuff. I will check out the social media. Hopefully I'll get to see some anime on there and thank you again for taking the time. Have a good afternoon. You guys will.
